Broadband wireless communication networks based on various standards, for example Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.16e based Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) standard and related evolved versions are widely deployed to provide various types of services, such as voice services and packet data services. Information generated by an application running in a mobile station and a base station in a broadband wireless communication network, undergo through various protocol layers of the broadband wireless communication system. Each protocol layer appends a header to the information received from a preceding protocol layer. As a result, a significant amount of header overhead due to one or more headers of the various protocol layers in the broadband wireless communication system gets added to the information during transmission.
Each application generates a different size of a payload. The payload corresponds to number of information bytes. Also, each application has a different upper limit on a size of the payload. In one example, a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) application generates a smaller payload compared to a file transfer protocol (FTP) that generates a larger payload. A media access control (MAC) layer in the broadband wireless communication system encapsulates the payload in a MAC protocol data unit. A MAC header of the MAC protocol data unit includes a length field to indicate size of a MAC layer packet. The MAC layer packet is carried in a physical layer packet. The size of the length field in the MAC header is fixed based on a maximum size of the payload among a plurality of payloads for different applications. The fixed size of the length field leads to the header overhead as some of the applications generate smaller payloads while other applications generate larger payloads.
In light of the foregoing discussion, there is a need for a method and system for configuring a media access control header, specific to requirements of an application, to reduce the header overhead.